HM Prison Foston Hall is a women's

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prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

and

Young Offenders Institution In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile det ...

, located in the village of Foston in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The prison is operated by

His Majesty's Prison Service His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) is a part of HM Prison and Probation Service (formerly the National Offender Management Service), which is the part of His Majesty's Government charged with managing most of the prisons within England and ...

History

The original Manor of Foston and Scropton was held by the Agard family from the 14th to the 17th century. It was bought by John Bate in 1679. Richard Bate was

High Sheriff of Derbyshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Derbyshire from 1567 until 1974 and High Sheriffs since. The ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around ...

in 1705.''The History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby'' Vol 1 (1831) Stephen Glover. Appendix p. 12 Queen Anne. Google Books Brownlow Bate sold the estate to John Broadhurst in 1784. The 17th century

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

was destroyed by fire in 1836, but many parts of that house survive. A new

Jacobethan The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the Engli ...

house was designed by T. C. Hine of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

and built in 1863. Its main two storey front has eight bays and an off-centre three-storey tower. The house is now a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. HM Prison Service acquired the hall and grounds in 1953. During its Prison Service history Foston Hall has been a detention centre, an

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

centre, and finally before its closure during 1996 a satellite of Sudbury Prison. It was re-opened on 31 July 1997, following major refurbishment and building work, as a closed-category female prison.

The prison today

Foston Hall Prison is spread over 5 wings; C, D, E, F, T and the First Night Centre. (A & B were recently demolished). During the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic, a wing of temporary accommodation (designated G Wing) was constructed to isolate prisoners whose roles were vital to the running of the prison (Kitchens, Laundry etc) in case of a severe outbreak. The prison can accommodate both remand and convicted. Foston Hall also has a Health Care Centre. The prison provides inmates with work in the prison

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s, the

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, the

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and

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

workshop and the

kitchen A kitchen is a room (architecture), room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a Kitchen stove, stove, a sink ...

s, all of which can lead to qualifications. In addition the prison's education department offers

NVQ National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are practical work-based awards in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that are achieved through training and assessment. The regulatory framework supporting NVQs was withdrawn in 2015 and replaced by th ...

s in

Cleaning Cleaning is the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment. Cleaning is often performed for beauty, aesthetic, hygiene, hygienic, Function (engineering), function ...

Services and

hairdressing A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be r ...

, as well as basic and key skills learning.

Notable inmates

Current

* Georgina Henshaw – waitress who stabbed her restaurant's chef to death after boasting of her intentions to friends, sentenced to 16 years imprisonment in 2018. *

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– transgender fell runner from Lancaster convicted of the attempted murder of

Ralph Knibbs Ralph Andrew Knibbs is an English former rugby union player who played for Bristol. Rugby career He made his debut as a seventeen-year-old against Pontypridd RFC in 1982, scoring with his first touch of the ball.Louise Porton Louise Porton (born 1996) is a British double murderer who came to public attention in 2019 when she was convicted of murdering her two children as they "got in the way" of her sex life. Between 2 January and 1 February 2018, she repeatedly atta ...

– Woman who murdered her two children in 2018. * Lorraine Thorpe – Britain's youngest female double murderer at the age of 15. One of those she killed was her own father. She became eligible for parole in 2023. * Zara Phythian – ''

Doctor Strange Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as ...

'' actress. She was jailed for eight years for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl.

Former

* Maxine Carr – Sentenced to three and a half years' prison for lying about her knowledge of the

Soham murders The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire, England, on 4 August 2002. The victims were two 10-year-old girls, Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Amiee Chapman, who were lured into the home of a l ...

. * Jessica Lynas – contributed to the

murder of Gemma Hayter Gemma Hayter (13 September 1982 – 8 August 2010) was an English disabled woman who was tortured and murdered by three people she considered her friends in Rugby, Warwickshire, England on 8 August 2010. Kathy McAteer, the chairperson of a commiss ...

in 2010, which was the subject of the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

documentary ''Gemma: My Murder'' * Karen Matthews – Kidnapper. * Melanie Shaw – Arsonist. Subject to several conspiracy theories linked to her whistle blowing of Beechwood Children's Home abuse.

References

External links

Ministry of Justice pages on Foston Hall

HMP Foston Hall - HM Inspectorate of Prisons Reports

English Heritage: architectural description of listed building

Magna Britannia: volume 5 - Scropton Derbyshire (1817). From British History Online
{{Authority control Grade II listed buildings in Derbyshire Foston Hall Foston Hall Foston Hall 1997 establishments in England Thomas Chambers Hine buildings